VRMMORPG: Dragomancer Reborn

Chapter 207  A Calculated Reply

Arthur bid the young girl farewell and logged out.

>You have 312 Notifications!<

As soon as Arthur appeared on the desktop screen, he saw tons of notifications. Some of them were people pinging him, some were messaging him and some were just mentioning him in various posts.

'It increased even more.' Arthur thought and opened them to take a look.

Similar to before it was basically people asking him for tips, but this time they were willing to offer a lot more.

"So they're finally ready for that, huh…" Arthur smiled. "They're offering up to a hundred UC for private tips." He read through some of the offers.

To others this was a big offer. Even to Arthur of the past, if he was ever offered hundred UC for a private tip, he would gladly take it.

But he knew that for the information he had just a 100 UC was an understatement.

"Guess I'll release a bit more for them." Arthur smiled and opened a draft that he had saved.

>Do you want to publish 'Fool Proof Guide to getting to the beginner towns (includes over 30 beginner towns)?<

This was the article that Arthur had prepared. It was basically a textual guide on how a player could get to their first time. Of course, he excluded Roran town from this and instead used the towns from other newbie villages.

These wouldn't necessarily affect him and would still net him quite a bit of profit. Also he knew that it was time to improve on the profits a bit.

"Confirm." Arthur gave his permission.

>Post has been published!<

~DING~DING~DING~DING~

Just a couple of seconds after Arthur posted the guide, his notification started to jump again!

<Grey Watcher posted another guide!>

<Whoa! He actually did a guide on towns!>

<How the hell does he know all this? Has he been to all these towns?>

<There's no way that is possible is it?>

<Yeah, players have barely been able to go past the newbie village. There is no way someone could go to the other towns just yet.>

<How do you think he obtained this information then?>

<Maybe he's a hacker>

<HAH! You really think hacking into the servers of Hypnotek is easy? You must be dreaming.>

<Technically speaking he was or is dreaming>

<He might be wrong, but this is still a bit strange. Perhaps Grey Watcher is being information fed by the company>

<Why would they do that? Won't that be spoiling things?>

<It still works as a great marketing trick. Plus the game is indeed difficult at the start and takes time for one to learn. Giving a little tip like this helps>

<But then why is it a paid guide and not a free one that games provide on their official sites?>

<You fool, they want to keep it a secret. It is better this way and urges players on. Plus I'm sure they're making a pretty penny doing this>

Arthur who read through all the new posts couldn't help but laugh.

"They're close on some things, but completely wrong on the others." Arthur smiled. "I did technically go to all those towns though. Just not in this life."

He let the posts run and left the forums. Arthur knew that they were gonna keep on discussing it and didn't mind it.

'Though has Rain messaged again?' Arthur checked his messages and saw that there was no other request. "Huh… its unlike him to give up this easily." He was a bit surprised.

~DING~

As if on cue, the message log updated.

>User Rain has messaged you!<

"Speak of the devil," Arthur muttered before opening the message.

<Rain: I would like to talk to you about a mutually beneficial deal. This is shall be done with not just me as the guarantee but also the Agate E-sports team. If you wish, we will be ready to sign a non-disclosure agreement first>

Upon reading the message Arthur knew it wasn't from Rain.

"Ahahah! Guess his manager finally got wind of it and saw what he sent earlier." Arthur couldn't help but laugh out loud.

The tone used in the 2nd message was completely unlike the earlier one. He could also tell the level of sincerity that was being shown in it. At the very least, Arthur could tell that they were finally taking him seriously.

'I wonder if they saw the latest post and rethought it all.' Arthur questioned for a bit before realizing that it was highly likely.

His earlier guides could be considered as exploration work and scouting, but the one that he had use published wasn't something that anyone could obtain easily.

Even if it was the cooperative work of multiple players from all the villagers, it still meant the user Grey Watcher had access to a team of such capable people.

They weren't dumb enough to think that Arthur was from the Hypnotek company or that he had hacked the servers. To them, the more reasonable option was that he had simply spread out the work in a larger group.

To the Agate E-sports team, someone like him was very valuable.

Being able to command such a group of people was not simple. Especially considering the fact that such information was very volatile and could be easily leaked.

One not only needed to have trust in others but also know how to release the information at the right time.

For example the guide that Arthur had published would become highly ineffective if it was published literally 3-4 days later.

Players would have already found out some of the routes to the villages and it would eventually become disseminated to the rest of the player base.

Even if it wasn't all the villages that Arthur included in his guide, even a couple of them would still bring down the value of his post and make it 'unoriginal' to some extent.

The criticism would be a bit stretched but still legitimate.

As such this was the right time for Arthur to publish.

After all, in the field of intelligence and knowledge, the first person was always the winner. There was no such thing as second position in it.

Once the information was revealed it could seldom be controlled. As such 1st sale was the most important with the others losing their value rapidly.

Arthur had experienced this many times and had seen plenty of people go through it; whether this be normal players or the pro players affiliated with various teams and companies.

As such he knew exactly how to deal with it.

"Time to write my own terms." Arthur muttered and got to typing.

With how many contracts he had seen, he knew the standard terms that would come into effect in the future and made a rather secure contract for him.

It included a stringent Non-nondisclosure agreement that bound the Agate E-sports team to a certain player named 'Grey Watcher' in Morpheus Online.

Of course, in reality this player didn't exist at all.

'But with the Veil Of Thousand Skins, it doesn't matter at all. And since it turns up in the game's official names, it will still hold up as a legitimate name and valid for the legal contracts.' Arthur thought to himself.

The Agate E-sports team had no idea what they were getting into. Arthur was setting up enough contingencies for him such that the team would be gone before they could even sabotage them.

Arthur would 'MESS' them up real bad.

While the Agate E-sports did not have Shady dealings that could get them in trouble with the law easily, Arthur could still break a lot of things for them by revealing their older contracts or dealings.

These were things that weren't public yet and would eventually get revealed in the future when it was safe.

But if the same was done now, it would be the same as taking away their competitive advantage as well as crashing their stock value.

'Now that I think of it, I can very well blackmail a few of the big boys if need be.' Arthur thought to himself.

He of course knew the risks that would come with it too, but knew it could be used as his final gambit against them. With how little financial power he had in reality, especially compared to mega corporations he had to be ruthless and fierce.

He had to stab them where it hurt the must and ripped out their innards for the hyenas to feed on.

"I won't have the betrayals like in the past. I'll be the one that stabs this time." Arthur vowed to himself, a cruel smile on his face.

With his mind made up, he finally pressed send, finalizing the reply.

~Phew~

"Now to wait…" Arthur let out a breath.

Even if he had thought about this in detail and went over it all several times, he couldn't help but feel a bit unnerved.

'I have to be brave if I am to thrive in this life!'